The handling of war materials, such as unexploded artillery shells and mortar shells, is a difficult and dangerous task. The handling of such war materials where the war materials may contain toxic materials is especially difficult and dangerous. Not only might the item of war material explode during the handling process, but the toxic material may escape in one of many ways, thereby threatening not only personnel engaged in the handling of the war materials, but personnel many miles away from where the war materials are being handled.
It is increasingly required that the handling of toxic or explosive materials be conducted within a containment structure designed to withstand the inadvertent explosion of the item of war material and to prevent the airborne dispersal of the toxic material within the item of war material. The task of enclosing each item of war material within a containment structure while investigating and handling that item of war material can be cumbersome and very expensive.
Rather than build containment structures around each item of war materials to be handled, some contractors have constructed a limited number of movable structures, and have physically moved those movable containment structures about the area from one item of war material to another. Unfortunately, even this procedure is cumbersome and expensive. Because the containment structures are large and built strong enough to withstand the blast from an inadvertently exploded item of war materials, very large cranes and other heavy equipment is required to move these containment structures around.
Accordingly, there is a need for new apparatuses and methods for handling items of toxic or explosive materials which avoids the aforementioned in the prior art.